While Khaanachahiye was setting up processes, routes, supply chains, onboarding volunteers(called ninja warriors), they had to also figure out a way to ensure they are able to sustain operations financially in order to ensure that they can consistently feed people they are supporting.
Ruben Mascarenhas and Pathik Muni from Khaanachahiye.com have been managing a tight ship of highly capable and efficient people who have come together for this cause. Further, the operations were divided into Supply & Distribution, Communication & Fundraising and HR & Accounts. In the very beginning, they quickly identified core team members: Neeti Goel, Mazher, Manoj, Pranav Rungta who could handle different aspects of this humongous operation. By dividing the roles & responsibilities and delegating efficiently they were able to scale up very quickly. The need in each and every leg of the operations was identified early on. Subsequently, the need to fundraise was also identified very early on.
Fundraising communication
For fundraising to happen smoothly, one needs to create awareness about the work being done. This is where Swaraj Shetty who has more than 15 years experience as a digital strategist came in. Swaraj, Ruben and Pathik worked in tandem to spread awareness and to get few collaborations going. They completely spearheaded the effort to spread awareness about the cause and fundraising. Shishir Joshi from Project Mumbai worked in tandem with Khaanachahiye.com to raise funds initially. This was the first collaboration. As Shishir spread the word about Khaanachahiye, friends and acquaintances happily donated to the cause. These three also felt the need for crowdfunding and collaborated with Efforts For Good team, to start a campaign and to spread the word. Efforts For Good team, observed all the work being done by Khaanachahiye.com and started the fundraising campaign. You can check out the campaign and donate here.
As the Indian summer is slowly gathering pace, the need for dry snacks for children was felt. Ruben reached out to Ms Amita Chauhan in Parle G to help procure biscuits for children. Parle G came forward and started giving thousands of Parle G biscuits on a consistent basis to Khaanachahiye.com. Thus, a collaboration with Parle G was stuck. Similarly many individuals came forward to give thousands of bananas for children. Volunteers distribute these bananas and biscuits to children, pregnant women and old people along the routes.
Sapna Bhavnani, popular hair stylist and film maker who is also a ground volunteer of Khaana Chahiye and her production company Akbar Pains created creative concepts and videos for Khaana Chahiye.
The Art Care Project was a collaboration wherein architecture students in Juhu are giving their time by sketching for anyone who donates.
theartcareproject Get your portrait sketch by fighting hunger in Mumbai! A group of students have started a project to…
Posted by Khaanachahiye on Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Apni Public Project started making avatars and making the ninja warriors(volunteers) look very cool. Subodh Chaubey and Imran Khan are advertising professionals who came up with this idea.
#ApniPublic ko #KhaanaChahiye #MumbaiFightsCovid19 #Mumbai
This lockdown hope beats hunger , The Apni Public Project team has raised 1.4 lakh rupees sharing 5640 meals via 53 avataars. Thank u Subodh Chaubey, Muhammed Imran, Rupesh Doiphode Manali Rangnekar, Viraj Chorghe for powering the fight against hunger via your art. Join the fight : Donate to bit.ly/1lakhmeals Send front facing photo and donation screenshot to apnipublicproject@gmail.com get a cool avataar #ApniPublic ko #KhaanaChahiye #MumbaiFightsCovid19 #Mumbai
Posted by Khaanachahiye on Monday, May 11, 2020
Stage.in is an artist community which shared poems in the form of videos and creatives to amplify the campaign
वहाँ कुछ लोग है जो हंस कर सारे काम करते है।- palpoetryDonation link: https://bit.ly/3cvD9G8#Khaanachahiye
Posted by STAGE on Sunday, May 3, 2020
Rohit Dsa volunteer wrote a rap to spread the word.
A Rap Tribute To Mumbai 's Food Ninjas Of Khaanachahiye
EMCJUSTISE-The Sky Underground : A rap tribute to Mumbai 's Food Ninjas, KhaanachahiyeOn 25th March , A nationwide lockdown was imposed limiting movement of the entire 1.3 billion population of India as a preventive measure against the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in India.Written, recorded on phone in lockdown. Music producer : Swak Video: Saurabh Dubey❤️Be a part of Khaana Chahiye's fight against hunger and donate: www.bit.ly/1lakhmeals#MumbaiFightsCovid19 #Khaanachahiye #StoriesBehindTheMask #TogetherWeCan #EffortsForGood
Posted by The Logical Indian on Saturday, May 2, 2020
The restuarant Door No 1 did 2 live music shows on Instagram and donated 75% of their proceeds to Khaanachahiye.com.
These collaborations helped people become a part of the movement. It also helped in people becoming volunteers themselves apart from donating in cash and kind.
Apart from these collaborations several social media influencers and celebrities raised awareness about the cause and helped in raising much-needed funds and volunteers for the cause.
Due to these collaborations word spread about the work that is being done and they have been able to gather a lot of support. It has also received support from government and local BMC officials and it helped them expand their reach and impact.

Apart from this, the entire team of Khaanachahiye.com and all the volunteers reached out to friends, acquaintances, family members etc., to spread awareness. Each and every volunteer worked for this cause as if their life depended on it and not someone else’s. Swaraj spends over 15 hours monitoring the communication to ensure that in all the channels there is no communication breakdown between the volunteers and with people engaging with Khaanachahiye on social media .
Volunteers who are essentially handling supply, demand and packaging have started micro-campaigns on their own to bring more financial support as well as to get more volunteers. As the word spread, the campaign grew more organically and more and more people started associating themselves with the cause. Read more about the humongous effort by volunteers and volunteer management in our next article.
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